Rob Keay

About

For me, space is the most important element in a visual work of art.
It creates the psychological arena that a viewer enters. Color harmonies
create a mood, or state of mind. Everything else happens after that.
In the early 1950s in America, Clement Greenberg the thinker, writer
and critic of art, formulated a concept of modern art that was brewing in
the studios of a handfull of painters. He stressed emphasizing the flatness
of the canvas, and dropping the picture box presentation that had been
standard before Impressionism. He brought a practical, aesthetic, and moral
agenda to space in painting as personified in the work of Jackson Pollock,
WIllem DeKooning, Mark Rothko, Clyfford Still, Hans Hoffman and several
other mavericks.
Of course, no one approach to art making can work for all artists, or all
art viewers. However, an important observation on cognition, feeling and
thinking was a result of the brave work of these masters. There are many
precedents for their achievement, and many followed in their footsteps,
finding new paths to pursue.
On these pages, I will present my paintings and drawings that are
creating my own path. I will also present my thoughts on the topics of space,
color, and all of the elements that go into the making of a visual work of art.
Rob Keay